Edwin Smith "Chaucer" Elliott (August 20, 1878 – March 13, 1913) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

sportsman and a Hall of Fame referee and linesman. He was the grandfather of Bob Elliott, one of Canada's most respected sports writers.

Early life and education

Born in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between To ...

, Elliott played hockey and football at his hometown Queen's University. While studying arts and later medicine, he captained Queen's rugby and hockey team. He also played for the

Kingston Granites The Kingston Granites were a football team from Kingston, Ontario and a member of the Quebec Rugby Football Union and the Ontario Rugby Football Union, which were leagues that preceded the Canadian Football League. The team played for four seasons ...

, winners of the Canadian championship in 1899. It was while at Queen's that Elliott earned his nickname Chaucer, after Geoffrey Chaucer due to his expansive vocabulary. However, he left the university before graduating to organize a semi-professional baseball club in Kingston, Ontario.

Career

In 1903, Elliott joined a Toronto baseball team that played within the Eastern League, and later moved to play in the

New England League The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played intermittently in five of the six New England states (Vermont excepted) between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League B ...

. While playing minor league baseball, he also began his career as a hockey referee with the Ontario Hockey Association. By 1906, Elliott began coaching the ORFU's

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

, where he was later appointed manager. The following year, he was hired as the coach for the

Montreal AAA Montreal Amateur Athletic Association is Canada's oldest athletic association, located in Montreal, Quebec. It was renamed as the ''Club Sportif MAA'' or just ''MAA'' (Montreal MAA) in 1999 after a brush with bankruptcy, but is still widely known ...

's Winged Wheelers and an advisor for the organization. He also managed the Oswego baseball team in the Empire League and attempted to organize an international baseball league. Elliott resigned from the Montreal AAA Winged Wheelers position in 1911 to manage the St. Thomas Saints of the

Canadian Baseball League The Canadian Baseball League was an independent minor league that operated in 2003. The league's only Commissioner was Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame member Ferguson Jenkins. The league featured former maj ...

. He also managed the

Toronto Blueshirts The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blueshirts, was a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They were a member of the National Hockey Association (NHA). The club was founded in 1911 and began operations in 1912 ...

of the

National Hockey Association The National Hockey Association (NHA), officially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor of today's National Hockey Lea ...

. This was shortlived however as he was diagnosed with an irreversible form of cancer in 1913 and died in his hometown Kingston at the age of 34."Chaucer Elliott died at Kingston"
''The Montreal Gazette'', March 14, 1913. In 1961 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

References

External links

*
E.S. (Chaucer) Elliott
biography at the NHL Officials Association {{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Chaucer 1878 births 1913 deaths Canadian people of British descent Deaths from cancer in Ontario Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Ontario National Hockey League officials Sportspeople from Kingston, Ontario Queen's Golden Gaels football players Players of Canadian football from Ontario Toronto Argonauts coaches